Challenges for work‐integrated e‐learning: The case of the Swedish Academy of County Administrations

Abstract

In an action‐oriented research project, the Laboratorium for Interaction Technology at the University of Trolhättan Uddevalla, together with six of Sweden's county administrations, is aiming at developing an academy for all scholastic education and training hosted by the county administrations. The point of departure for the paper is a classification of the educational needs reported by national special interest groups covering a wide range of the fields of expertise that characterises work and organisation of the 21 county administrations of Sweden. The demanded courses can be classified with respect to two orthogonal dichotomies: inter‐ vs intra‐disciplinary scope of content and educational objectives being focused on adapting to, or changing a existing practice. The paper goes on to present and discuss three major challenges for work‐integrated e‐learning: the expert dilemma; situatedness vs decontextualisation of work practice; and the aspect of planning for the unknown. It is argued that addressing these obstacles calls for techno‐pedagogical designs that are inspired and influenced by a number of scholastic traditions ranging from traditional classroom education and case methodology to seminars and the learning circles of liberal adult education.

Citation

Svensson, L. (2004), "Challenges for work‐integrated e‐learning: The case of the Swedish Academy of County Administrations", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 16 No. 8, pp. 492-502. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665620410566450